Racelogic Traction Control
Racelogic Traction Control is universally recognised as the best after market system available. It does not only dramatically reduce the chances of an accident, but also positively enhances the performance of the vehicle.
Why Racelogic Traction Control?
Once you have driven a powerful car with Racelogic Traction Control, you will never want to be without it.
- In a rear wheel drive car you can use full throttle around a corner with greater confidence that the rear end isn't going to suddenly break away.
- In a front wheel drive vehicle push-on understeer is cured, with the system setting the correct level of power to finely balance the vehicle.
- In wet and slippery conditions the car accelerates as fast as grip allows without skidding all over the road.
It does not only positively enhance the performance of the vehicle, Racelogic Traction Control also dramatically reduces the chances of an accident.
This is why companies like Gumpert and Koenigsegg choose to fit Racelogic into their cars.
How does Traction Control work?
The system works by monitoring the speed of all four wheels using the ABS system or specially fitted sensors. When wheel spin is detected the engine power is reduced, by cutting a single injector pulse, until grip is resumed. This occurs in a thousandth of a second, and appears to the driver as a slight misfire with no loss in acceleration.
Maximum acceleration is achieved by limiting the slip between the tyre and the road. The point at which a tyre is just beginning to slip against the road gives the maximum coefficient of friction value.
Graph showing Friction vs Percent Wheel Slip
From the graph on the left it can be seen that the maximum coefficient of friction (µ) occurs at a slip between tyre and road of 10% when dry, and around 5% when wet.
Many factors affect the ideal level of slip, wet / dry conditions, speed of the vehicle, lateral g-force (cornering), tyre compound, tyre pressures etc. Ideally the driver should be able to dial in a base level of slip that takes into account weather and tyres, and the system should adjust automatically for speed of the vehicle and lateral g-force.
When cornering, the system will reduce the amount of slip available, to prevent lateral slip from occurring, and vary this amount depending on the speed of the vehicle. At high speed, low grip situations, this slip should be around 1-2% to maintain forward momentum, and at low speed high grip situations, this can be much higher.
Cutting a single injector pulse
The idea of cutting fuel to an engine sets alarm bells ringing in engine builders, as they all know that running a lean combustion mode will elevate in-cylinder temperatures very rapidly. The denser the air/fuel charge, the more heat the lean burn can generate. Therefore it is vital that a fuel cut system will not cause a lean burn.
Racelogic Traction Control prevents lean burn by removing 100% of the pulsed fuel delivery – essentially the affected cylinder takes a gulp of fresh air; the in-cylinder temperature remains virtually unaffected.
Prolonged fuel cut on one particular cylinder would cause scavenging of the petrol lining the inlet tracts, and when the next full fuel pulse arrived, it would be partially reduced in quantity by the re-wetting of these tracts. RL Traction Control rotates cylinder cutting to prevent this situation from occurring.
Does it fit and how is it fitted?
Racelogic Traction Control is suitable for petrol-engined cars that have electronic fuel injection. The system is integrated with the car’s injector signal wires – so the signals are always passing through the Traction ECU. A suitable RPM signal must also be connected.
However the following conditions make it incompatible:
- Misfire detection: If your engine management acts upon detecting misfires by putting the vehicle into limp-home mode, or illuminating the check-engine dashboard lamp, RLTC cannot be used unless the misfire detection function is disabled. This can be done in some cases by ECU tuning specialists.
- Pulse width modulation to control/limit the injector current.
- Peak and hold injector drivers.
- Injector resistance lower than 4ohms.
Engine Configuration
RLTC is available either with six or eight injector interfaces. On an engine with four, five or six cylinders you would use a six injector interface system (with one or two inputs being redundant on an engine with five/four cylinders, respectively).
On a V8 it is advisable to use our eight injector interface system, especially if the vehicle has a very high power to weight ratio; it is entirely possible to use a six cylinder system on a V8 engine, by leaving two cylinders unaffected and altering the cut sequences accordingly. However the disadvantages in doing this are that launch control and full throttle shift cannot be used, and the smoothness of operation isn’t as great.
It is also possible to employ RLTC on a V10 or V12, again by leaving two or four cylinders unaffected. An eight cylinder unit being used on a V10 engine can be extremely effective due to the higher ratio of injector inputs, to the extent that both launch and full throttle shift can be used
Racelogic Traction Control Components
In-Car Adjusters
Digital Adjuster
Featuring a backlit LCD screen and simple rotary selector button and billet aluminium faceplate, the Digital Adjuster controls slip levels but can also be used as a setup and diagnostic tool, and features many display and configuration options.
Slip levels are adjustable in 1% increments from 0% up to 25%, and launch control comes as standard. Cut level thresholds, rev limits, wheel sizes and RPM operating levels can all be altered in real-time. The display option will represent, in a graph or text format, wheel speeds, RPM, and cut levels. In addition an injector cut feature allows diagnostics to be carried out without the use of a laptop computer.
The adjuster can be added to an existing Traction Control setup as an upgrade – please contact us with the serial number of your TC unit to check compatibility.
Standard Analogue Adjuster
The Standard Traction Control system has six degrees of operation, which equate to degree of oversteer in RWD application and degree of understeer in a FWD application. The Six levels are 0% wheel slippage (Wet conditions), 5% (Dry), 10%, 15%, 20% and off.
Setting a RWD vehicle to 5% in the dry will deter the rear end losing traction and a tail slide occurring. 5% in a FWD car will deter excessive understeer.
If the weather conditions deteriorate whilst the car is in use the system can be adjusted whilst in motion down to the wet setting and 0% wheel slippage, making the car much safer to drive in adverse conditions.
Launch Control
Launch control is a function within the Traction Control system designed to automate standing starts to maximise the initial acceleration. It is activated by pressing a button on the traction adjuster when the car is stationary.
This will bring in a secondary rev-limit (for example 4000 rpm).
The throttle can be fully depressed without over-revving the engine. The car is put into gear, the throttle floored, and then the clutch is engaged, whilst the launch control system controls the wheelspin and revs for the perfect start.
On a turbo charged car, if the launch control is active, and full throttle is given for two to three seconds, the boost pressure will build up before the clutch is released, resulting in stunning off-the-line performance.
The launch control rev limit can be programmed via a laptop computer or via the traction adjuster.
Full Throttle Shift
The full throttle gearshift system is activated by a switch fitted to the clutch pedal, either a hydraulic switch or a mechanical switch. Once the clutch is depressed, the system automatically drops the engine revs down by using a momentary rev-limit, allowing the next gear to be selected without lifting off the throttle. Because the throttle is always fully depressed, the engine is instantly back on full power, and on a turbo charged car the turbo is still producing boost. Tests have shown up to 0.1 seconds can be gained per gear change.
Full throttle shift is a firmware upgrade available either at time of purchase or subsequent to fitting
Retail Prices
|
Part Number |
Traction System |
Price +VAT |
|
RLTC6A |
Adjustable Traction Control (Up to 6 Cyl) ABS |
£535 |
|
RLTC6AW |
Adjustable Traction Control (Up to 6 Cyl) (TCWSSSET required) |
£535 |
|
RLTC6AL |
Adjustable Traction Control (Up to 6 Cyl) + Launch Control ABS |
£595 |
|
RLTC6ALW |
Adjustable Traction Control (Up to 6 Cyl) + Launch Control (TCWSSSET required) |
£595 |
|
RLTC6DIA |
Adjustable Traction Control (Up to 6 Cyl) + Launch Control ABS + Digital Adjuster |
£695 |
|
RLTC6DIAW |
Adjustable Traction Control (Up to 6 Cyl) + Launch Control + Digital Adjuster (TCWSSSET required) |
£695 |
|
RLTC8ALD |
Adjustable Traction Control (8 Cyl) + Launch Control + Data Logging ABS |
£725 |
|
RLTC8ALDW |
Adjustable Traction Control (8 Cyl) + Launch Control + Data Logging + (TCWSSSET required) |
£725 |
|
RLTC8DIA |
Adjustable Traction Control (8 Cyl) + Launch Control + Data Logging ABS + Digital Adjuster |
£850 |
|
RLTC8DIAW |
Adjustable Traction Control (8 Cyl) + Launch Control + Data Logging + Digital Adjuster (TCWSSSET required) |
£850 |
|
Part Number |
Add-on Options |
Price |
|
TCDIA |
Digital Adjuster |
£180 |
|
TCDIA (BLACK) |
Digital Adjuster (Black) |
£190 |
|
TCWSSSET |
Set of 4 Wheel Speed Sensors (for non ABS cars) |
£320 |
|
TCCLUSHIFT |
Full Throttle Shift |
£100 |